


beyond the depths

by Lindserton



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Connor is a selkie and Hank is confused, Eventual Smut, Fur trapping makes me sad yall, M/M, Selkies, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-23
Updated: 2018-10-23
Packaged: 2019-08-06 07:01:19
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16383518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lindserton/pseuds/Lindserton
Summary: Hank is a lonely detective mourning the death of his son. One night he stumbles into a case that’s bigger than one he’s ever known, breaks the boundaries of what’s real and what’s fantasy, and is literally swept off his feet by a strange man on the beach.A DBH au in which Connor is a selkie and Hank is confused as all hell.





	beyond the depths

**Author's Note:**

> This work will feature some animal violence in the form of bad people hunting seals.  
> There’s probably going to be some death in the later chapters, but not main character related. 
> 
> The setting isn’t in Detroit. It takes place along the western coast- I was thinking specifically in Washington State, near Puget Sound, but it could technically take place anywhere. The location will not be specified. 
> 
> Anyways I don’t write fic a lot so ENJOY

The days are getting shorter, Hank thought, as he sat in his beaten up Oldsmobile and watched the sun sink over the horizon. The light it cast over the ocean didn’t seem as bright as it usually did throughout the rest of the year. The shoreline was hazy and the sunbathers and beachcombers that usually crowded the sand had retired inland for the fall. It was too cold for them... Too damn cold for Hank to be bringing his dog to the beach after work when they should both be warm at home. But Sumo slobbered and wiggled in the backseat, itching to get out, and Hank heaved a deep sigh. He felt bad about leaving him alone for the majority of the day during the work week and the least could do is give him some freedom at the beach.

Plus he was there for other reasons, too. Cole always loved the ocean and being here brought up some bittersweet memories.

 

He knew it was cool out and that he was going to feel it through his old oversized coat, and he didn’t exit the car yet for that exact reason. He scrubbed a hand over his beard and stared at the dancing hula girl on his dashboard. It was amazing how something made out of cheap plastic could show so much more drive than a living, breathing fifty-three year old man… Sad, really.

Sumo announced his impatience with one of those howling whimpers that excited dogs often do and Hank shushed him loudly. He grabbed Sumos leash, got out, and struggled to clip it onto the dogs collar before he could be bowled over by him.

Hank had both feet in the sand when he realized he had forgotten to take his shoes off. He could feel the sand seeping through the laces already; he was going to regret this when they finally went home.

Sumo kept his nose lowered and paused here and there to sniff at various objects scattered on the beach. A rock, a clump of seaweed, a carcass of a crab. Hank followed him and stumbled clown-shoed in the sand, feeling stupid and cold and just about ready to go home and have a drink.

He was grateful for a pause when Sumo found something particularly interesting to investigate. He stuck his hand in his pockets, looked over the water, and was momentarily taken back in time.

It’s was sunny, beautiful out, and the water was warm. Cole was making a sandcastle and patted a turret down with the flat part of his shovel. He looked over at Hank and his smile was brighter than the sun itself, wide and expanding over the expanse of his cheeks. Hank remembered it as clear as day, like a photograph permanently pinned into his brain. Cole adored the beach and they often went together during the summer. They would sit under an umbrella, share a sandwich, and watch the surf creep up the sand. Things were different then. Life had seemed to lose its zest when Cole died.

The memory left Hank feeling… Feeling something, and he gripped Sumos leash a little tighter in his palm. He wasn’t the best father ever to Cole but he’d be damned if he didn’t try his hardest to be one when he was alive.

It’s then that the dog decided he’s had enough and pulled Hank along rather suddenly; the lead jerked from his hand and Sumo took off in a gallop further down the beach.

Whatever feeling of melancholy he previously had was immediately replaced by the fear of losing his dog to the ocean. He took off at a run after the dog, shouting all sorts of expletives and commands in hope that he’d stop, and to his surprise he eventually did. It took Hank a long few moments to catch up and the jaunt left him winded and panting and nearly doubled over to catch his breath. If his shoes weren’t filled with sand before, they certainly were now.

Sumo had found a big pile of rocks and some disgusting looking seaweed to shove his nose into and he huffed loudly as he dug around in it, unphased by his breathless owner behind him. Hank knew he was going to need a bath after this, they both were, and he groaned as he took his leash again.

“Idiot dog, Sumo. I love you, but you’re going to kill me one of these days.”

Sumo ignored him per usual but this time he had found something that really got him going. His tail wagged and he whimpered and he hauled his furry mass up and over a boulder that jut out of the sand. Hank was forced to follow, pulled along by the sheer weight of his dog, and clambered over it just as ungracefully. When he found his footing in the damp sand, he was met with something that made his blood run cold.

 

A person was sprawled out on the sand, face down and naked.

 

Instantly Hank assumed the worst and his hand went to his hip as he made a grab for his cell phone. He tugged hard on Sumo’s leash to keep him away; this was a crime scene, something he was very familiar with, and the last thing he wanted was his dog to tarnish the evidence. What the hell happened here? Was it a murder? Suicide?

The body shifted and for a moment Hank paused as he tried to type in an emergency number with his sausage fingers. So, it’s alive. He’s alive. The body is alive and is making a soft, exhausted sounding sigh.

“Hey… Hey! Are you okay? What the hell happened?” Hank steppes closer to the incapacitated individual but stopped to reconsider things. He’s been trained for stuff like this but this was… different. What would happen if the guy was sick? He didn’t have any gloves or medical equipment on him. He worried his lower lip for a good few seconds in thought.

Whatever, he thought. So what if he’s not the best man for this particular circumstance. His actions could lead to a life being saved and there’s sure as hell no one else on the beach who could help.

Plus it gave him an opportunity to feel like his life had a purpose again, if only for a few moments.

Hank kept a tight hold on Sumos leash and carefully approached the figure. It looked to be a young man with a head of damp and dark curly hair. He didn’t appear to be injured or hurt in any way-- in fact, his skin was pretty much untouched aside for a peppering of freckles and moles here and there. He practically looked like he was glowing against the damp sand. It was all very odd. The guy should be frozen to death in this kind of weather.

He reached out and touched his fingertips to his shoulder as Sumo excitedly sniffed at the mans head, his cold nose brushing over the shell of his ear as he did so.

The guy, in turn, reacted very suddenly and quickly.

“Ah, no, don’t… Don’t!” The man sat up and did his best to get away from Sumo, who looked absolutely thrilled to have gotten his attention, and scooted back until he was pressed up against the nearest rock. Now with his face exposed, Hank could see that he was a lot younger than he had originally thought, pretty soft looking, and that his face had a few of those perfectly placed moles on it too.

“Woah, woah! It’s okay! Do… Do you need me to call an ambulance?” Hank had his phone in hand again. Maybe the guy was drunk or something. “Are you hurt?”

He stared at Hank as if he was the one lying naked on a cold beach at night instead.

“No, no. I’m…” He trailed off and looked around. His body was trembling and his voice seemed to be, too. “I’m looking for something... For someone. My friends. Where am I?”

He told the guy their location and he looked absolutely crestfallen at the knowledge. Weird. He definitely had to be under the influence of something at this point.

“What’s your name?” Hank started and pulled on Sumos leash. The dog wouldn’t leave the dude alone. “And why are you naked? Are you alright?”

“Connor. My names Connor. I’m okay.”

“Okay, Connor. My names Hank Anderson and I’m a detective- a Lieutenant, specifically. I can help you. I can drive you to the hospital or the police station.” It was weird that he hadn’t mentioned having a last name. Regardless, he tried to speak as slowly and calmly as he could because Connor still looked upset; he had this sort of wide-eyed shock plastered on his face. “Have you been drinking or using any drugs?”

Connor shook his head and disturbed the curls that framed his forehead. One tumbled over his eyebrow and he lifted a slender hand to push it back into place.

“No. I don't do those things.” Connor looked down at his hands and turned them over, examining both his palms and his fingernails, then slowly tilted his gaze back up. “Look, Lieutenant. It’s… It’s probably best if you leave me alone.”

Hank looked surprised by that and his eyebrows raised. The kid looked too composed to be drunk but he could have been drugged or had taken something— it was too hard to tell. He was acting strange no matter which way you looked at it.

His thoughts were cut short as Connor hoisted himself to his feet. He slipped a little in the sand and grabbed onto the nearest rock for leverage

“Woah, woah, where do you think you’re going?”

Hank reached out and grabbed onto his shoulder firmly. Connor didn’t like that. He whipped around and flinched like he had been burned, and Hank immediately let go.

“I can’t tell you what’s happened, okay? You wouldn’t believe me. I appreciate the help but…” He trailed off for a long few seconds and his eyebrows furrowed together in thought. They looked nicely manicured and shaped, which was a weird detail that stuck out to Hank. “I need to go. I have some things to figure out. My friends are… They’re somewhere, and they need me.”

“I’m not letting you fuckin’ go anywhere, Connor, especially since you’ve mentioned people potentially being missing.” No more niceties. “Do you have any idea how suspicious you sound right now? I could arrest you here and now for indecent exposure on a public beach as it is. What the hell is going on?”

He stared at Hank hard for what seemed like an eternity before looking away. “Please don’t arrest me,” He mumbled. “I don’t have any clothing because I lost them in the ocean. I’m very far from home and don’t have anything with me.”

The ocean? Hank tugged on Sumos leash when he tried to lick Connors hand. This was all too wild. Something was off and it made him feel sick in his stomach— he especially regretted visiting the beach in that very moment.

“What the fuck were you doing in the ocean, kid? It’s freezing out! Not to mention it’s dark and unsafe and-“

“You’re not going to leave me alone, are you?” Connor cut him off and rubbed his eyes as he spoke. He was starting to shiver and Hank wondered if the cold was just starting to get to him. “Look, fine, I’ll talk. I… I really don’t have a choice in this situation, do I?”

Hank watched him and realized his own hand was hovering dangerously close to where his gun sat in its holster at his belt. It wasn’t loaded, he never kept it loaded when he was off duty for a number of reasons, but his reaction was more instinctual than anything and he quickly drew his fingers away from it. The kid made him feel unsettled; nakedness aside, he was still eerily strange, but he didn’t seem outright dangerous. No matter what his deal was, it was clear that he needed some sort of help.

“Okay. Um. My friends and I were kidnapped,” Connor started, and Hanks eyes widened. His hand flew down to his pocketed cell phone. “No- don’t call anyone, please! Hear me out! I’m.. I’m from up north. My friends and I are. We, uh, we were kidnapped and forced to work on a boat.”

“Fuck,” Hank said, and lifted a hand to shove a few loose strands of hair from his eyes. “You… Really?”

Connor nodded and continued. “We were on there for a while but I managed to escape. My friends are probably still stuck on there.” He shifted on his feet and his toes dug into the sand nervously.

Hank squinted at him. “He? What was his name? What was he forcing you to do on the boat?”

“His name was Kamski and that’s all I know about him. He made us hunt seals… Specifically harbor seals. He had us kill them and skin them for their fur.” Connors eyes fixated on the sand and his voice seemed to go quieter the more he spoke.

Was hunting seals still a thing? Wasn’t it illegal? Environmental laws weren’t Hanks forte. “Why is he kidnapping people to kill seals for him?” Maybe ‘kidnapping’ to Connor was just some bad working conditions. Hank watched those crabbing shows at night and knew how long those guys stayed out at sea for…

“He has us working for him because we know how to find the seals. Plus… He has our skins. We can’t change back if he doesn’t give us our fur back, so we’re basically prisoners on his boat.” Connor grumbled and reached down to trail his fingertips over Sumos head gently, brushing over the thick hair around his ears. It was the first time he had touched the dog since their meeting.

Wait… fur?

Hank laughed but it was one of those nervous ‘I-don’t-understand-you’ laughs that was completely fake and had to be pushed out of his lungs. “You really must be on some fuckin’ drugs or something. What are you talking about?”

Connor palmed over his eyes. “You’re not going to believe me but I don’t have a choice… He kidnapped us because we’re selkies.”

“I’m sorry, a what?”

“A selkie. I’m a person but sometimes I’m a seal, too. When a selkie becomes a human they keep a part of their selkie self with them.” Connor lifted his eyes to look up at Hank. Hank just blinked at him, his expression blank.

“I have a… It’s a pelt,” Connor touched over his upper arms gently as if shrugging off an invisible jacket. “I use it to turn back into a seal. If I lose it or someone steals it then I can’t turn back.”

Hanks mind has been fried even before the selkie part and now he’s just plain lost. He remembered something faint then, something that was a completely pointless memory until that point, and prodded his brain for deeper explanation. His ex-wife had been into all sorts of weird things like myths and legends and wizards and mythological shit like that. He faintly remembered a selkie being mentioned and how he pronounced it as ‘silky’, which had upset her. He was never really into all that made up stuff and thought it was pretty pointless fantasy knowledge… Until now.

“Right, so you’re telling me to believe you when you say you’re a magical seal person?” He felt stupid, like he was part of a game and was expecting someone with a camera to jump out and tell him he was being pranked. But no one else was there- it was just the two of them standing in the dark by the beach.

“You don’t have to believe me,” Connor sighed and knelt down to pet Sumo after apparently determining that he was no longer a threat. “But it’s the truth. You can arrest me all you want but it won’t do you or I any good. If you want to leave me then so be it. I’ll find a way to my friends somehow.”

Hank watched him pet the dog and was at a complete loss of what to do. Connor was right— he couldn’t bring him to the station or arrest him but he couldn’t leave him in the cold again.

 

Cole crossed his mind for some reason and he remembered a time when they had pulled over on the side of the road to save a duckling. It was stranded trying to cross the road after its siblings and mother and was struggling to make its way against oncoming traffic. They had scooped the duck up and brought it across the street to the pond where it joined it’s family. Cole had been so happy and proud of Hank. He had told everyone for weeks about how his dad had saved a baby duck.

Connor wasn’t a baby duck avoiding cars but Hank knew that he wouldn’t survive out here in the dark and cold. The kid would slip on a rock and hit his head or something. The possibilities were endless and he didn’t want to think about them.

 

Plus, in the back of his mind, Hank sort of believed his story too, as much as he wanted to deny it.

“Okay, I’ll tell you what.” Hank scratched at the back of his head and hoped he wouldn’t regret this decision. “Let’s head back to my car. I have a blanket there and we can crank the heat and you can tell me more about that the fuck is going on. I won’t arrest you or anything because… Because it doesn’t feel right. But I need you to explain everything to me. Deal?”

Connor looked up with those wide copper eyes of his and nodded after what felt like the longest few moments ever. “Okay. Thank you, Hank.”

So they turned and started back up the stone stairs to where the Oldsmobile waited for them, with Hank brooding quietly and Connor walking carefully, a hand in Sumos fur as he went.

**Author's Note:**

> y’all I love dbh and fantasy stuff so here u go
> 
> Follow me on twitter, my handle is ‘lindserton’


End file.
